Confused about "starvation mode"

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RonandDi
RonandDi Posts: 120 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I've been folowing MFP for about 3 months now and have found it to be the best way for me to watch what I eat. When I started I figured myself to be about 20 pounds over where I wanted to be. But I was more concerned about getting healthier, rather than thinner. MFP has set my daily intake at 1400 calories. Along with that, I have started a 5 day a week program of 30 minutes on the treadmill and 10-15 minute weight resistance exercises. I have been trying to stay right around 1200 calories per day, although I dont follow it too closely on at least 1 day on the weekend. (sanity check?) Anyway, my weight loss had been pretty good up untill the holidays, and I hope now that we are back to normal, so will my weight loss.

My question is, I occasionally get a message saying that I may be puting my body into starvation mode. I feel better than I have in years, I'm not hungry, not sore after exercising and can exercise longer and easier every day. Am I hurting myself by not hitting the recomended calories every day?

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  • Sheilagh85
    Sheilagh85 Posts: 33 Member
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    I'm think that different things work for different people and you can't listen too much to what others tell you, especially when it comes to "starvation mode" since it seems to be a widely debated and confusing subject for most. I think if you feel healthy and have energy at 1200 cals a day than that's fine. If you find that it's too hard to keep up with that, than you can always increase your calorie intake and eat back your exercise calories.

    Good job on the weight loss so far!
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
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    I'm think that different things work for different people and you can't listen too much to what others tell you, especially when it comes to "starvation mode" since it seems to be a widely debated and confusing subject for most. I think if you feel healthy and have energy at 1200 cals a day than that's fine. If you find that it's too hard to keep up with that, than you can always increase your calorie intake and eat back your exercise calories.

    Good job on the weight loss so far!

    I agree that the whole starvation mode thing is very highly debated. I think that if you stick with the 1200(after exercise) then you should be fine. I think the whole pop-up thing in our dairys is to let us know that if we continue with a daily intake of that range then you won't be optimizing your results. A day here and there like that is fine and is not going to do anything to our bodies. I personally don't believe it's healthy for anyone to be eating less then 1000-1200/day. That is getting to be extreme and is not sustainable or healthy for the long run.

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